I Can Do Better
by Islagatt
Summary: This story is a collaborative effort. It is a crossover. It will contain lemons or I lack seven tentacles, it will contain graphic blood and gore, by my standard even. I can't describe the story very specifically yet, but I'll change the summary when I ca


ICDB1

I Can Do Better

I don't own Naruto

A Word About This Fic: Well…it seemed like a good idea at the time. You see, the 'unusual pairing' c2 deluges one with alerts and new stories…most suck. The number of harem fics is on the rise, the number of crossovers is always increasing, and too many stories have Naruto broken by Sakura's rejections. After much collaboration with Thundereaper and Causeiambetta, which will continue as the story goes on so they share equal blame and credit, we kind of made this thing…

-

Konohagakure no Sato was a place of amazing Shinobi. Legendary warriors were the norm for the village…every generation to date had had a few. That being said, there were only eight generations to date. Most villages were so prosperous in the beginning, and the other great shinobi nations, mist, cloud, sand, and rock, had all been established long before Konoha became a rebellious dream.

However, Konoha's future in anonymity was of little consequence, because for the time they were a place of remarkable, if highly dysfunctional, ninja. Perhaps it was in the water, or perhaps so many legends made the mind crack a tiny bit, but whatever the cause, there seemed to be no end of quirky or even psychotic individuals. Some excellent examples of thereof were Maito Gai and his student Rock Lee; both green-spandex wearing, bowl-cut taijutsu experts endowed with massive eyebrows and mind-numbing genjutsu abilities. Following a similar vein of quirky-ness was the relentlessly cheerful, brash, overconfident, orange-clad ninja known as Uzumaki Naruto.

At the other end of the spectrum was the ninja traitor, Orochimaru. He had taken his lust for power far enough that the village had been forced to exile him. Years later, he even attempted to destroy their nation in his rage. Then there was the boy who would be his pupil, Uchiha Sasuke…he was obsessed with revenge, and acquiring power unto that end. In an interesting bit of bureaucratic policy gone right and still failing, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke were placed on the same team.

More than three years before our observation is begun, the two had been rivals, verging on friends. Well documented events occurred, deepening their friendship, forming an almost brotherly bond between the two. However, for all they seemed to have befriended one another, the two never functioned on the same mental basis. Not even a year through their time as genin, Sasuke had run off from his village, hell-bent of gaining power from the psychotic Sannin, Orochimaru.

Now, however, we have come a long way from then. Three years, loosely, and in that time Sasuke had become much stronger; likewise his two teammates, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura, had also become stronger, though neither had become as powerful as he had. Despite Sasuke's complete betrayal of nation and village, he was welcomed back with open arms…the villagers and the village council ignoring the malice in him from his three years of study under the rogue Sannin.

The new malice had quickly been directed at his old teammate, who had in the past been beneath him, far beyond him, his equal, and his infinitely inferior, in that order. For the other member of their team it was something of a trade-off, on one hand Sasuke was speaking more, on the other hand, it was in this cold aggressive manner…remarks that even she acknowledged Naruto had done nothing to deserve…not that she would say so out loud.

"So you couldn't even actually hurt me, and you even have the greatest of all demons, Kyuubi sealed in you, with access to its powers. Just what were you doing for two and a half years with that buffoon teacher of yours?" While the topic of Naruto's inferiority was common, such questions regarding his training were not. Naruto glared with a renewed intensity while the former genin-cell seven Hatake stood at their old meeting place.

"Shut your goddamn mouth fuck-face." In the past, Naruto had addressed the Uchiha as Sasuke, or Sasuke-teme, in his mind these were endearing phases. The current name of 'fuck-face' was not. "I might not have gained that kind of power you did,"_ 'or even kept my soul really intact'_ "but at least I wasn't getting snake in the ass everyday!" he spat back.

Sasuke seethed for a moment before answering, not letting his displeasure show through. "At least I was able to pick up my life and move on, _dobe._" Sasuke grinned blatantly at the reaction his use of his once-rival's nickname got.

The blonde made a sound of inarticulate rage at the name, for three years he had gone and become stronger so as to bring his wayward teammate home. When the pair had finally met, not only had he been totally outclassed, but whatever camaraderie had existed was absolutely gone. Nowadays, the word 'dobe' would evoke the images in Naruto's mind of their time as the original team seven. Days now long gone, always reopening the wounds of betrayal in his mind.

He wouldn't stand for it any longer. His eyes became blood red and his pupils vertically slit as he took a menacing step forward, muscles tensing, preparing to hurl his body forward. The murder, however, was cut abruptly short when a gloved fist sailed from out of his line of sight and impacted the center of his face, throwing him backwards and off the bridge completely. When he rolled to a stop from the super-strength-augmented impact, he scrambled to at least a kneeling position to stare at the aggressor in stark surprise, with just a hint of betrayal.

Sakura glared at him coldly, emerald eyes narrowed to slits. "Don't bother to try Naruto." Her voice was cold, with only a hint of bitterness, Naruto had no difficulty believing it was directed at himself. "You're not even close to matching Sasuke-kun anymore." Sakura's voice cut to the quick, the blonde's face hardened in response as much as he could against the girl. "The village council and all of the villagers have accepted Sasuke-kun's return… It'd be the least you could do to put up with him, given that it was you who failed to bring him back the first time!"

The blonde twitched in aggravation, holding onto himself with every shred of self-restraint he had. "You can't be saying that honestly Sakura, I saw how much his betraying the village hurt you!" He was on his feet again, feelings a jumble of pain and rage and frustration. "Do you honestly mean to say that you'll just forgive and forget all the things he did?!"

She yelled right back at him. "And I can remember the times he saved my life too, all the times he saved me because you couldn't do anything! I can't remember even one time that _you_ saved my life!" Sasuke's grin became a fully-blown and savage _smile_ as he watched the pain and shock mingle over his former friend's face. All of it fell behind a single mask of rage soon after, and with the beginnings of another inarticulate sound he vanished.

-

Weeks prior to the confrontation on the bridge, a series of bright streaks had illuminated the night sky. The event wasn't spectacular, or even so much unexpected, and had it been the only thing to happen, it might have passed quietly into anonymity. However, the fact that though it had been predicted, the shower was completely anomalous (no forewarning besides seeing the rocks in a telescope), and the subsequent events led to the first really significant appearance of shinobi cults.

For the entirety of the week leading up to the conflict on the bridge, strange new lights had begun moving among the stars. Known constellations were blacked out, new stars shone down, the whole nightscape _changed_, and it changed more every day and every night. Seeing one's nighttime sky suddenly different from what it had been all of one's life was not generally regarded as a good thing.

That said, Shinobi are supposed to be paragons of agility, swift of mind and body, able to adjust to any new circumstance or standard in the blink of an eye. This skill was limited, however, to things that could be controlled. That is to say, a ninja in a situation where a mission rating is suddenly changed can analyze the situation and determine if the mission is still in the best interests of himself or his village.

When a ninja is confronted with something completely out of the realm of their experience, and something they have absolutely no control over, they react far worse than a normal person would. The reasons for this come from their suppressed emotions. Emotions that can be cumbersome in battle tend to build up and seek release, denied too long they become a savage rip against sanity when finally they are shown. So it was that the sky changing so suddenly led to a sudden spring of cults, the greater portion of which believed the apocalypse was at hand.

This brings us once more to the present, in fact on the same day as the previous scene, albeit much later at night. Seven individuals, whose garb practically screamed ninja…black tight clothing and pulled-down masks, sitting in a semi-circle around their cult-leader. The leader was a particularly charismatic Chuunin; now this would strike most people as odd because Iwa was not known for having charismatic ninja at all and the seven other Nin were all jounin.

Nonetheless, this was the case, and the seven jounin were all listening intently while their subordinate explained to them the way of things. "Now, I am sure that you all know the story of how our land was made… don't you?" The ninja nodded and one of them spoke up.

"Of course, Izanami and Izanagi procreated and created all the things of our world, the lands and mountains and the people." The chuunin shook his head sagely.

"That is not the story of our creation, Izumo. That is the story of our ancestor's creation. You see, ages after our ancestors were made and had been living in the lands made by the Kami, another Kami came to the land and saw our people. They saw how the barbarians were driven away from the lands given to our ancestors, and came in secret to watch us, study us, and then they took some of our ancestors away from the land."

His audience stared at him, he had their complete attention and for a person like him to command such respect was thrilling. At their eager glances he continued.

"They ferried our ancestors, and then their children, and then their children's children, to another place, below another place in the celestial temples. That is why our stars have never looked the same as our ancestor's stars. But when they set us down on this new land, the Kami found that their less noble cousin had also visited the world, and had stored nine powerful weapons here. The weapons of the other Kami are what we now know to be the Bijuu. The Kami who carried our ancestors feared for their safety, and also knew that they could never let the Bijuu be released into the world. So to protect our people, they left seeds in our blood, and when the seed first sprouted, the first real ninja was born. Generations later the other gifts, bloodlines and the like began to manifest. The Kami had watched us until this point, and when we could defend ourselves, they sealed the land so that their enemy could not draw out their weapons again."

Amazingly, the other ninja seemed to accept the ludicrous tale, many were awestruck by the ninja's oratory capacity. One asked him "…so what are the new stars in the sky now?"

The Nin grinned at them slowly and shook his head. "Is it not obvious? The ancient enemy of the Kami who delivered us here has returned for his weapons." This drew several sharp gasps from his little cult, before one dared to question him.

"But… but… how do we know it isn't the one who helped us before? Or that they won't come back and save us again?"

"In the history of the land, there has never been a word of our former benefactor… clearly they feel their debt to us for taking our ancestors from their home is repaid. We can only hope that their faith in us is well placed, that we are strong enough to weather the coming storm…" The jounin were not comforted.

-

Several days after the confrontation on the bridge in Konohagakure, as night fell over the lands of the elemental nations, one final light twinkled in the sky, and then a tremendous surge of blue built up in one of the great black spots. Shinobi throughout the world, and civilians as well, stood about to watch the light, an unusual event to be sure. Some looked at it and saw only a growing pinprick of light, others looked and saw the end of the world.

Whatever people saw when they looked up at the light, it soon began cascading in a not at all friendly-looking fashion down towards their lands. The super-weapon rolled towards the planet's surface, incandescent death expanding from the miniscule pinpoint to a blast that would scour the island off of the planet's surface, not to mention whatever might have been on or near it.

However, just when it was looking like the shit was really about to hit the fan, or at least destroy the fan, it stopped. The incredible surge of light and energy simply stopped, high in the atmosphere, the beam smashed against a seemingly invisible barrier, higher even than the clouds themselves, though no less visible for it. As the light washed over the protective bubble, it rippled and splayed out across the world, lighting up the planet and making night into day for a brief while, before it vanished.

-

Naruto groaned when he woke up, his head ached brutally, and his body was screaming in savage protest. Parts of him that had no business aching at all ached brutally. At some point the ache hadn't faded and he decided to open his eyes, perhaps hoping that the pain would make him fall back into blissful oblivion. Sadly, this too was denied him, instead he was greeted by a face completely unfamiliar to him with a Kumogakure hitai-ate.

Naruto groaned slowly, it would be his luck to be attacked and kidnapped by cloud ninja while he was running to vent steam. He was pretty sure the reason he couldn't move was because he was bound with some kind of genjutsu, or maybe a Raiton jutsu. He grunted and tried to tell her that they would get no information out of him, however the sound came out far less intelligibly. Seeing this, the face looking down on him, a female face, he noted absently, called over to someone else.

"Hey, he's awake again," her voice seemed muffled, oddly, so it didn't actually hurt to hear her. And before too long another face, this time oddly familiar, appeared before him.

The familiar face spoke in a voice he couldn't actually remember, but it did call his name, he didn't have a hitai-ate though. Just a giant gourd of sand on his back. "Naruto. You're probably really sore right now…it's chakra exhaustion. Whatever this thing is, it drained your chakra the hardest, probably because you have the nine-tails."

The familiar face that knew about Kyuubi, and the sand gourd…in spite of his shock-induced haze, it suddenly clicked. "Gaara… who...who's this?" Speech was fairly easy now, but his voice seemed muffled to him as well… he'd have to look in that.

The Kazekage looked to the other person, the girl, and she nodded to him. "She is Nii Yuugito. Container for the Nibi no Nekomata, like you and I. It seems this machine called us all here to try to kill us, though why it would do that when there were only three I can't imagine." The Kazekage had looked back towards something out of his line of sight. "It doesn't matter though. Go back to sleep Naruto, I'll stay with you until you can return to Konoha…" The blonde felt distinctly touched by his friend's sentiment and smiled genuinely while tear rolled down off the side of his face.

"Thanks… Gaara."

-

Author Note: Well… Again I'm trying to make this all easier to read, and I got ten instead of eight reviews last chapter so I'm hoping this idea is win. Yeah it wasn't really obvious but this is going to be a Starcraft Naruto crossover… I don't think that's been done yet (maybe a message there?). Eh, fuck, who cares. I'm somewhat enjoying writing this and I need a break from At Any Cost.


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